With President Donald Trump’s federal cuts to USDA assistance programs, the NH Food Bank has lost about $1 million in funding, according to New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR). This leads to a growing need for assistance in food pantries across the state, leaving them wondering if they’ll be able to continue to provide the essential services they provide to NH communities.
Waysmeet, a center in Durham that is on the University of New Hampshire campus that’s been open since 1901, provides its services to a wide range of people within the campus as well as the surrounding community members.
While they get food from food banks, they also get some from local grocery stores donations, such as Trader Joe’s and Hannaford, but that dependence on private donors and grocery stores might grow heavier with the cuts in funding. This way has to be unlikely to get the sheer amount of food Waysmeet usually receives.
Really, it shows that the community’s businesses care more about keeping the food pantries open than Trump’s administration does. With how many cuts have gone to so many parts of the country, I wouldn’t be surprised if everything that doesn’t directly benefit the government will be completely cut from funding before the end of the year.
Waysmeet has been doing well for the past couple of years. It got about 125,000 pounds of food in 2023 and increased to more than 145,000 pounds the next year. With these high numbers, its executive director Thomas Young expects the center to receive a little less than 209,000 pounds of food; however, this expectation leads to more demands of food, which may be something Waysmeet might not be able to maintain after these cuts.
St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry, another pantry in Exeter, has seen its highest demand for food assistance in ten years, Executive Director Molly Zirillo told NHPR. With these cuts, this pantry, along with many others, will have to start buying food of their own in order to meet the needs of its communities.
I don’t understand why this cut was necessary. Surely, after everything else that’s been affected because of the amount of federal funding being ripped away, this has to be the end, but I know it’s not.
The state and the country need those funds. The past few years have proved the alarming increase in citizens who need assistance with getting food, and the increase in food demand shows this. Even with the pantries getting more and more food, there’s a likely chance that they won’t be able to catch up with the rising numbers, just like you can’t race a cheetah or a car.
What people can do to help this situation is donate to these pantries and banks if they can or if they have the money to do so. Yes, it’s not going to stop the problem in its entirety, but people showing they care means something. If enough people do it, it can slowly fill the bowls of these starving pantries.
Hayley Doda can be contacted at
hayley@kscequinox.com
